Here are some things to think about as you reflect on the "How to Guide for Building a Comprehensive Youth Ministry Program":
1.
One of the things people focused on a lot from the first session was
the need to "duplicate ourselves". This is precisely the first step (p.
4) of planning youth ministry. To what extent do you have a team in
place in your parish/cluster? Are there others who take ownership of the
ministry, or is it basically just you?
2. What are some of the main obstacles with forming a team of empowered adults to share the burden of ministry?
3. If the Ten Steps are so easy, why do you think that most parishes/clusters are not using them?
1) There are a few different groups at St. Matthew comprised of parents/people invested in adolescent faith formation who work to offer opportunities/outlets for youth of our parish.
ReplyDelete2) One of my biggest obstacles is divvying up the appropriate amount of responsibility among adults interested in adolescent faith formation.
3) Maybe because there are a lot of different theories/programs/advice for faith formation leaders and at some point we start tuning it out?
Mike, what are some of the other theories about Faith Formation that you think are contradictory to the formation of a youth ministry program? Since you're new, I'm curious if you are getting too much advice.
ReplyDeleteI have a team of ten that help plan and lead small groups for Confirmation .
ReplyDeleteWe have two seniors and 8 adults that work with our Confirmation class.
We gather as a team Saturday mornings for a a light breakfast and coffee .
We go over the lesson and plan the opening prayer and discuss new ideas.
Our youth ministry program runs on vol. and staff. I collaborate with the RE staff and our Liturgist for planning and support.
I personally think its difficult for middle school parents to be on a team . They pretty much drop their kids off and go.
Parents are so busy
I can always count on my parents for support with food and chaperoning events.
Lisa Bejarno
St. Pius X
Cedar Rapids
The question was "if the Ten Steps are so easy, why do you think that most parishes/clusters are not using them?" I think the steps are pretty simple and helpful to create a youth conscientious parish. But I for me it becomes a game of semantics after a while. What is a program? What is youth ministry? One person has a great program, but no youth gatherings, a great culture, but no youth team. I guess it also hinges on the size of a parish.
ReplyDeleteAs far as getting too much advice, I don't think getting advice is a bad thing. But too much advice could be detrimental to authentic development. I have 5 shelves of books in my office full of advice. People who work here advise me on how the program has been successful in the past. I go to catechist in-services with advice on how to evangelize and engage kids. I go to Archdiocesan development days with speakers who offer great advice on how to run RE and YM programs. I get newsletters and flyers about new advice and webinars for Catechesis once a month advising me how to run the youth program. So to answer the question - and I apologize for the novel - I think a possibility for people not using the 10 steps you are talking about might be that they see "A How-to guide for Building a Comprehensive Youth Ministry Program" and think, "I'll read that as soon as I figure out who's gonna sub for my Confirmation class this afternoon." Or more specifically, a state of apathy might be inadvertently developed due to an overload of well-intentioned advice. If these 10 steps truly are the panacea for a parish with little to no youth program (as defined by the document) then on my first day of the job I would've loved to have been pulled a side and told that. And maybe it was included in some of the supplemental materials in a newsletter or on First Class, maybe I need to devote more time to reading through and digesting this stuff, and maybe I'm the only one with this opinion because I'm new. Maybe I need to do a better job of filtering through all the advice and determining what is important. But aside from all that, I enjoy my job immensely!
- Big Mike
I think Mike points out something profound. Are we stuck in the business of trying to get the details of our jobs done (finding a sub for Confirmation) that we don't have enough time to actually think about what we should be doing?
ReplyDeleteDo we just grease the squeakiest wheel without thinking about where the cart is headed?
We have a Youth Leadership Team (YLT) that consists of 11 teens and 3 adults (including myself). Our Confirmation Team includes 6 adult Table Leaders, and we have additional adults and high school/college students help on the Confirmation Retreat Team. It would be helpful if we sat down as a Confirmation Team at the beginning of the year to outline what our goals are for the year, and talk about the curriculum, and the role of the Table Leaders. Providing more guidance to adults, as well as empowering more adults to help with ministry, is a way that we can improve.
ReplyDelete